The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver‘s February stats are out, and strong sales are proving to be more than anecdotal – particularly for detached homes.
Details on the sales, listings and prices below…
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The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver‘s January stats are out, and sales were down while listings were up over December 2010′s numbers (sounds bearish – right?). But prices still rose compared to last month, led by two ultra-hot neighbourhoods.
Details on the stats and the pricey locales are below…
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Yesterday, Demographia released its 7th Annual International Housing Affordability Survey (PDF), and Vancouver was again close to the top of the least affordable cities surveyed (3rd least affordable, behind Hong Kong and Sydney).
But it got us thinking – does affordability matter? Not in the sense of does a lack of affordable housing suck – obviously it does for many.
What we mean is: can an unaffordable city stay that way forever? Our thoughts below…
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The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver‘s December and full 2010 stats are out, and they wrap up a year that was slow by the standards of Vancouver’s hot decade.
Sales were down 24% from November of this year (which is seasonally expected) and slower than December 2009′s hot sales market.
That capped off a year that was sluggish compared to the rest of the decade for sales. Total sales in 2010 were down more than 10% from Vancouver’s 10 year average (it was a dang good ten years, mind you).
But prices still rose modestly in 2010. The REBGV’s housing price index was up to $577,808 in December 2010, from $562,463 in December 2009. That’s a 2.7% increase – not terrible, but not the return Vancouver buyer’s have been used to this decade.
It’s also about about 2.6% below the 2010 peak which occurred in April. But owners should take heart with a ludicrously successful decade for Vancouver real estate (see chart above). And hope springs eternal for the 2011 market.
photo credits: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver‘s November report is out, and sales picked up some steam in November
Sales were up 7.4% from October of this year, and are getting closer to their seasonal average after crazy down and up years in 2008 and 2009. Total listings were down by 12.1% from October.
But prices didn’t follow sales up, with the REBGV’s benchmark index price almost unchanged (up 0.1% over last month) at $580,080.
But you’d have to call the news good for sellers, particularly compared with the summer sales strike of 2010.
We’re heading into the generally slow month of December, but fear not, hot toddies will carry us through to the more lively spring market.
photo credits: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
RBC today released its Third Quarter 2010 report on Housing Trends and Affordability (PDF), and Vancouver’s housing affordability actually improved for the quarter (although it’s still poor compared to long term trends).
The reasons for improved affordability? Mostly drops in prices (particularly for detached bungalows) and drops in mortgage rates. But incomes in Vancouver also rose a bit, gaining a small amount of ground on prices.
RBC says that you would need 68.8% of a household’s median pre-tax income to pay for a Detached Bungalow in Vancouver (down 5.4% from last quarter).
For a Standard Two-Storey home, you’d need 78.1% of a household’s median pre-tax income (down 4.7% from last quarter).
And for a Standard Condo, you’d need 40.1% of a household’s median pre-tax income (down 2.2% from last quarter).
Even with the improvements, RBC warns that the Vancouver market’s affordability is still poor.
In one illustration, they give us the standard qualifying income that would generally be required to get mortgages for each of the property types in Vancouver:
Detached Bungalow: $131,600
Standard Two-Storey: $149,400
Standard Condo: $76,800
Those are high numbers for Vancouver, even with recent gains in income.
Check out the full report below:
photo credits: TineyHo on Flickr
Teranet and National Bank of Canada have released their September 2010 House Price Indexes for Vancouver and Canada. We’ve discussed their methodology previously here, and we like it for its apples to apples comparison of repeated sales for the same homes.
For the third month in a row, Vancouver’s prices slipped slightly. Vancouver’s price index was down 0.3% in September, while the Canada-wide index turned negative for the first time in 16 months – down 1.1% from August. Vancouver’s September prices are down just over 1% from this year’s peak in June.
Prices dropped in all six cities surveyed, and Vancouver and Montreal tied for the smallest price reductions.
The year over year change in the Vancouver index is beginning to weaken as well compared with prior months. Vancouver’s index was up 9.2% between September 2010 and September 2009.
But August’s year over year index was up 11.8%, July’s was up 14.1% and June’s was up 16.3%. So the yearly index is starting to reflect the slowdown.
The Canada-wide index is up 7.9% since September 2009.
So September was relatively flat for prices – is it a plateau? Or just a step before the next climb?
photo credits: TineyHo on Flickr
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver‘s October report is out, and as we thought might be the case, the snooze-fest rolls on.
Sales were up 5.3% from September of this year, but down 36.9% from October 2009‘s hot market. Total listings were down by 16.4% from September, but up 22% from October 2009.
Prices were up a bit, with the REBGV’s benchmark index price increasing 0.4% last month to $579,349.
So sellers picked up some ground last month, and we’ve heard that sales were a bit hotter (even some multiple bid situations). But not enough to let us use a jazzy headline, like “Houses or Hotcakes?”
So pray for action either way. It makes things more interesting (even if it can be scary)!
photo credits: Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver
Teranet and National Bank of Canada have released their August 2010 House Price Indexes for Vancouver and Canada. We’ve discussed their methodology previously here, and we like it for its apples to apples comparison of repeated sales for the same homes.
The index shows that August continued July’s minor downtrend for prices in our city. Vancouver’s price index was down 0.4%, while the Canada-wide index was up 0.2% from July. This puts Vancouver’s August prices down 0.7% from this year’s peak in June.
Vancouver and Calgary were the only two cities showing a drop from the prior month, but increases have slowed across the board.
The year over year change in the Vancouver index is still strong, but is much smaller than previous months. Vancouver’s index rose 11.8% between August 2009 and August 2010. July’s year over year increase was 14.1% and June’s was 16.3%. The Canada-wide index is up 10.4% since August 2009.
It’s obviously hard to know if the price decreases are the start of a trend. September continued to be relatively slow, but anecdotally we’ve heard that things have picked up in recent weeks.
Let us know if you’re hearing the same or otherwise.
photo credits: TineyHo on Flickr
The last 10 years have been great times for Vancouver homeowners. Most who’ve owned through that period have seen their homes double (or even triple) in value, and have undoubtedly become wealthier because of it.
But this article from the Globe and Mail sparked our concern about one group of long-term homeowners in Vancouver – retirees. The article discusses options for retirees who are relying on their home’s value for income (either by downsizing or tapping credit from their home).
This also got us to thinking about how rising prices in Vancouver have messed up portfolio balance and diversification for retirees. It’s a bit of a happy problem, in that your house is worth so much now that it dwarfs your other investments, so your net worth is tied more to housing price swings.
But at the same time, we’ve heard anecdotally about those near retirement doubling-down on real estate. Sometimes it’s for investment, other times it’s to allow their children to actually afford a home in Vancouver’s pricey market.
We just wonder if some Vancouver retirees are banking on being able to sell or borrow from their houses at a time in their lives when risk should be minimized.
Are we being too conservative and nervous? Or are you seeing the same thing from retirees in Vancouver?
photo credits: *martin* on Flickr
